When was the last time you stood in a queue or dropped a cheque in the drop box to pay off your electricity or telephone bills. It is not just the physical effort of paying the bills even a memory slip can cause a penalty, which can fall in the range of . 50-200, depending upon the service and the service provider. Moreover, not too many internet users are comfortable to carry out online bill payments. Such people can look at ECS (Electronic Clearing Service), which is an easy and a convenient option for bill payments and it takes care of your memory lapses. In the process, you may even earn some discount for switching to the paperless mechanism.

In order to subscribe to ECS you have to fill a mandate form, which can be obtained at any of the offices of the service provider. This process is largely similar for most service providers. If you feel you have no control over the outflow of funds, you can assign an upper limit. If the bill amount breaches this limit, the ECS instruction wouldn't be valid for that particular month. In case of MTNL phone bill payments, bills will be sent to the customer stamped "Not For Payment "and after a period of 21 days (from the date of the bill), the bill amount will be debited from the customer's bank account. In this time period, the customer can check the balance and make the necessary arrangements. There are no clear disadvantages of ECS until it's in process. The problem begins when you have to discontinue the ECS, especially for bill payments. But for a bill payment it's an on-going service. There are certain steps you have to follow to ensure the appropriate closure. ECS involves two entities, the service provider, which is the beneficiary of the payment, and the bank, which is the channel of payment. So, when you discontinue a SIP, mobile or telephone connection you should inform the service provider through a written communication as stipulated by the service provider. Simultaneously, submit a written application to the bank even if there is no such mandate. Tomorrow, if the bank sends the funds despite your communication, you will always some recourse.